This past Saturday night, The Run to Live had a fundraiser in Flinton, Ontario. This fundraiser was organized and hosted by my family in an effort to assist with the costs of the upcoming run. We raised $2728.29 for our operations, making this our biggest fundraising event so far.

Thank you to everyone who had a hand in helping to make this event such an incredible success!! Another thank you to everyone who came out to the event. It takes a little contribution from a lot of people to make this happen, and we are moving right along.

I have attached my favourite picture from the event below. It is a picture of Isabelle Lemke and myself. Isabelle is a major point of inspiration for me and I promised her that I would run on May 1st for her! May 1, 2011 will be the first day of running for The Run to Live as well as Isabelle's last scheduled treatment! It is a very important day for her and with that, I will run 42.2k just for her!

The snow came down ALL day yesterday and I had the greatest run of 2011 so far. I took rotary trail south from Trent University after work with wind and snow whipping in from the East. Even with 3 inches of snow, the traction was perfect. It was an ideal temperature for traction where the snow was untouched, luckily for me, that just happened to be the whole length of the trail (less a pair of bike tracks, eeek). The snow was soft like running on perfectly groomed grass (during a blizzard), and with temperatures hovering around zero degrees I might go so far as to call it the perfect venue for running.

There is a certain tranquility to running at night through a snow storm that I won't be able to successfully describe to produce a true appreciation for what I experienced. I'm sure there are a few of you out there who battle with the elements during physical exertion while feeling a special kind of peace, just like I do. There is something very primal about knowing that what you are up against is totally conquerable, but is going to be quite the battle.

At my turn-around point, I stopped in my tracks and closed my eyes. I consciously slowed my breathing rate, took a few slow and deep breaths and thought about how lucky I was to be able to experience such an undertaking.

I hope that one day, each of you will be able to experience the feeling of overcoming a challenge like that.

When I was on my way home, this is what it looked like. I just so happened to have my phone with me, so I snapped a picture to show you.

We are getting closer everyday. Please take a moment to look through the all of the tabs on this site and pass the information onto your friends and families.

Lots of preparation is going into the upcoming events. We have some really exciting fundraising events in March and April. Be sure to come on out to the Charity Volleyball Tourney on March 19th at Trent University, All Creatures Great and Small on March 20th and take a drive to Flinton on March 26th, for our huge celebration of The Run to Live with live music (including bands and fiddlers), cloggers and lots of great food.